The City of the Future. Dubai, Created by Architecture

The captivating bestseller by Todd Reis, an architect and lecturer at Yale and Harvard universities, confirms the words of Will Durant: "The future never just happens. It is created." The author of the book "The City of the Future. Dubai,... Created by Architecture" tells the true story of Dubai, which in just half a century has become a symbol of global globalization and a new home for many people from different parts of our planet.

You have a unique opportunity to learn the details of the evolution of this giant. You will read about the principles and views that guided the people who were at the origins of transforming a settlement of nomadic Bedouins and fishermen on the shores of the Persian Gulf into the city of the future. But you will not find in Todd Reis's book a textbook example of a metropolis's development. It is a living narrative of how urban infrastructure was actually built and the coastline reinforced, and why Dubai gained importance first for the British and then for the rest of the world.

The facts collected by Todd Reis cannot be obtained from official sources or the media. Many documents, photographs, and letters had gathered dust in archives for many years before the author uncovered them. He had to piece together the history of Dubai from drafts, hints, fragmentary information, and rare surviving documents. As the author claims, the ruling elite of the city wants our consciousness to hold only one image of Dubai — modern and prosperous. But it has not always been this way.